Treble-winning South Shields managers Lee Picton and Graham Fenton will become full-time employees next season as the club launches an academy for 16-19 year-olds.

The duo will give up their day jobs running an academy at Monkseaton High School Sixth Form to concentrate on expanded roles with the Mariners, hailed by owner Geoff Thompson as a ‘landmark step’ in the development of the club following its promotion to the Evo-Stik League First Division North.

Shields will be playing four rungs below League Two, but the ambitious club - which this season has already won the Northern League Division One, the Northern League Cup, and the Durham Challenge Cup, and will face Cleethorpes Town in the FA Vase final at Wembley a week on Saturday - has designs on working its way up to the Football League.

Thompson said: “This has been the most amazing season for South Shields Football Club and we still have Wembley to come, but this announcement is also a major achievement for us.

“Our ultimate goal is to become a Football League side, and being able to have Lee and Graham working with us full-time is only going to help us.

“They will be working within the academy to help develop and bring through talent and while we’re very much aware that these things don’t happen overnight, the idea that we can build and improve local young talent, who would have a route through to our first team, is very exciting for the long-term development of the club.”

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Picton added: “It’s a big wrench to leave the school after working so long and so hard with all the staff and students over a number of years, but we have no doubts that this is the right thing to help both us and the club move forwards.

“We’ve really enjoyed the success we have had at South Shields this season and hoe that this move will help bring further success down the line.

“The way to do that is to bring youth development to the club while being able to focus on the managerial side of things, too.”

Back row: South Shields' owner Geoff Thompson, Martin Scott, and Sunderland College head of sport John Rushworth. Front row: South Shields' Graham Fenton and Lee Picton (Image: TIM RICHARDSON 2017)

Fenton said: “We’s really like to thank all the staff and students that we have worked with during our time at the school, but are now looking forward to taking our experience to help push the football club forwards.”

The academy - which will be capped at 40 players aged between 16 and 19 - will be run by Picton and Fenton in conjunction with the Improtech Soccer Elite coaching company run by former Sunderland defender Martin Scott, with Sunderland College providing the educational element.

Scott, who is also assistant manager at South Shields, said: “Previously we have worked on going into education establishments and introducing an elite football coaching element so that really promising young players with the potential to become professional footballers can get both a good education while still pursuing their football dreams.

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“The academy at South Shields will be slightly different in that being largely based at Mariners Park, the ethos is probably going to feel like football with an educational element, rather than education with a football element!

“That’s because the players will be training at the ground where one day they could be playing first-team football, and carrying out much of their studies inside a football ground.”